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DECEMBER 2014 • WEEK THREE www.guardian.co.tt BUSINESS GUARDIAN
COMMENTARY | BG17
This year was a successful year
for the Energy Chamber's safe-
to-work (STOW) programme
and one that will be remem-
bered for the outstanding per-
formance of several of our
STOW certified contractors at the certification
audit.
STOW is a certification programme for con-
tractor's health, safety and environmental
management systems (HSE-MS). It involves
contractors implementing the locally developed
STOW HSE requirements and undergoing an
audit of their HSE-MS. Certification is granted
for one year at 75 per cent compliance and
two years at 85 per cent and above compliance
to the STOW HSE requirements. STOW cer-
tification means that contractors have imple-
mented HSE-MS that make it safe for them
to work in T&T's energy sector.
We started the year on a high note due to
the fact that it marked the crossover to com-
pulsory certification of contactors providing
high-risk services to the energy industry.
Approximately one year earlier in January 2013,
the Energy Chamber got the leaders of the
major oil, gas and petrochemical operating
companies to publically agree that come Jan-
uary 2014, they would only consider STOW
certified companies for work on their facil-
ities.
This strategic move had the required effect
and resulted in more than 100 additional high-
risk contracting companies being certified in
2014 and an overall total of 329 companies
certified at the writing of this article.
The compulsory certification of high-risk
contractors also raised the level of interest
among smaller contractors outside the main-
stream energy sector catchment areas and
allowed us to advance another strategic objec-
tive to widen our reach to these smaller con-
tractors.
In 2013, we started working with smaller
contractors in the La Brea area and, in 2014,
we extended our reach to Mayaro/Guayagua-
yare and Point Fortin. The Point Fortin/ South
Western Chamber is very keen on collaborating
with the Energy Chamber to get its members
up to speed with STOW. For starters, we jointly
held a successful STOW luncheon with that
chamber.
We have given the commitment to continue
to support the work of the Point Fortin / South
Western Chamber with its members who need
to be STOW certified and will no doubt meet
with the members again in 2015.
During the year we celebrated the outstand-
ing achievements of several service providers
who demonstrated a commitment to high HSE
standards in their organisations by attaining
a minimum of 95 per cent in each of the 11
elements of STOW.
Standing out above the rest was Kennicon
Engineering Ltd who achieved a major mile-
stone and the distinction of being the first
company under the STOW programme to get
a perfect score of 100 per cent at its re-cer-
tification audit in April 2014.
While no other contractor has yet matched
Kennicon's feat, several have come close, so
we expect next year Kennicon will not be the
only one at the top.
Internally, we strengthened our adminis-
trative process by automating the STOW cer-
tification process and contractors can now
apply online for and track the status of their
certification audit. The new system has greatly
improved the flow of audit-related information
to stakeholders and has made the day-to-day
administration of the programme more effi-
cient.
We also added an HSE professional to the
staff of the Energy Chamber to boost the tech-
nical capability of the STOW project office.
During 2014 the Energy Chamber started
discussions with key officials in Suriname on
replicating STOW in that country and we will
be embarking on a feasibility study in 2015.
We also engaged Suriname stakeholders in
discussion on the use of T&T STOW certified
contractors in their energy industry. These
discussions have been promising and we expect
to advance this objective in 2015.
The year was not without challenges though.
We continued to receive complaints about
differences in interpretation of the STOW
requirements among assessors and addressed
the problem by having workshops with asses-
sors to ensure that going into 2015 they are
all are on the same page.
A burning issue continues to be the report-
edly high consultancy cost for assistance to
get ready for the STOW audit, which is
extremely restrictive for smaller companies.
To address the problem we created a free sam-
ple STOW manual for contractors and, very
recently, Petrotrin created a similar manual
to assist its contractors who are seeking STOW
certification.
In 2015 we will be looking at tackling this
problem head on to ease the financial burden
of contractors, especially the smaller ones.
The year ended on a sad note for us at the
STOW project office, with the passing of one
of our senior assessors, Balgobin Lutchman.
Balgobin attended our first assessor training
programme in 2008 and in 2009, was autho-
rised to work as a senior STOW assessor in
the programme.
The Energy Chamber acknowledges his con-
tribution to the STOW programme where he
willingly shared his expertise and mentored
new assessors. Balgobin was very personable
and will be remembered for his contribution
to the development of the programme over
the last five years.
As we leave 2014 behind and look towards
2015, we anticipate more exciting challenges
and will continue to focus on strengthening,
expanding and sustaining the programme in
the energy sector.
The Energy Chamber wishes to thank mem-
bers of the STOW Implementation Board, the
technical committee and the oil, gas and petro-
chemical operating companies for making 2014
an outstanding year.
For more information on our Safe To
Work (STOW) programme please visit our
Web site at http://www.stowtt.info/
Energy Chamber
www.energy.tt
The companies that
excelled at the 2014 audit
• Alcon Services Ltd
• Anti-Corrosion Technical Services
Ltd
• Asequith Engineeing & Contracting
Ltd
• Caribbean Industrial Research
Institute
• Caribbean Oceanic & Terrestrial
Equipment Ltd
• Columbus Communications Trinidad
Ltd
• Fast Contractors Ltd
• Foster Wheeler Upstream
• Inter-Isle Construction & Fabrication
Company
• Kennicon Engineering Ltd
• Kowlessar & Sons Contracting
Services
• Lennox Petroleum Services Ltd
• L&S Surveying Services Ltd
• Mustapha's Engineering Works Ltd
• Occupational Safety Health &
Environmental Services Ltd
• Pipe Services International Ltd
• ARC Towerage
• Qualitech Engineering Services Ltd
• R Baldeosingh Services Ltd
• Rig Bound Ltd
• RSR Holdings Ltd
• Standby Power Ltd
• Survival Systems Ltd
• Trinity Industries Ltd
Successful year for STOW